Catalog sheets provide detailed descriptions of specific artifacts recovered from particular collection units (lots).   The lot number is recorded on each catalog sheet.  Beginning in the 1990s, we began describing the pastes of ceramic, non-pottery objects using a series of categories designated by letters.  These are described in the folder entitled “PVN and PVC CAT Paste Descriptions” that can be found in the Analysis Sheets partition of the collection.  While the pastes were originally defined based on our study of artifacts from the Naco valley, the classification was extended to include examples from the lower Cacaulapa valley.  The descriptions provided on catalog sheets are accompanied by drawings when the item is sufficiently large or well enough preserved to warrant including such an illustration. 

For guidance on how to search for a particular kind of artifact, see the guide to navigating the collection. The following abbreviations are used to describe the different types of artifacts in the collection:

• ANTWRKD – Worked antler
• BDS – Beads
• BJART – Bajareque artifacts, some vitrified bajareque (wattle and daub fragment)
• BONE - Bone fragments and tools
• BRKBTR - Bark beater (stone artifact used to beat and soften bark as material for paper and clothes)
• CAND - Candelero (ceramic artifact with one or more chambers in which smoldering fires were maintained)
• CHST:  Chipped stone
• CLYBAL - Ceramic or clay ball
• CNCMP -  Complex censer lid (top of a cylindrical ceramic incense burner)
• CNCMPB - Complex censer bowl (bottom part of a cylindrical ceramic incense burner)
• CNCMPS - Complex censer support (support for censer lid and bowl)
• CNCMPBMDL – Complex censer bowl with modeled elements
• CNLP (or CNCMPS) - Censer prong (cylindrically shaped ceramic object tapering to a point that projected from the top on a complex incense burner)
• CNMDL - Ceramic modeled incense burner (pottery container decorated through the addition or shaping of clay on its exterior)
• CNSPK (or SPKCN) - Spiked Censer.
• DNUTS (or GSDNUTS) - Donut stone (rock with a hole drilled in it).
• ECO:  Ecofacts, floral or faunal remains.
• ECOB – Obsidian eccentric
• ECTC – Insect housing
• EFLR - Earspool
• ENIG (or ENIGBC) - Enigmatic baked clay.
• ENIGST (or GSENIG) - Enigmatic ground stone.
• FLT - Flute
• FWO - Ceramic figurine, whistle, or ocarina.  It was often difficult to separate members of these categories from their fragmentary remains.  We, therefore, included all such pieces under this heading, distinguishing among them on the catalog sheets when there was sufficient information to do so. 
• GSB – Ground stone ball
• GSUV:  Vesicular basalt, ground stone, uncertain artifact status
• HACHA (or GSHACHA) - Hacha (celt).
• HMRST - Hammerstone 
• JWLRY - Jewelry
• LCSH - Ladle censer strap handle
• LCTH – Ladle censer tube handle
• LWTS – Ceramic net or loom weights
• MANO (or GSMANO) - Mano (stones used to grind materials atop a metate [MTE]).
• MANOR:  Incomplete mano; roughout that was never completed.  Some examples are included under MANO.
• MBLV-Marble vessel
• MDRNP - Modern piece of melted plastic
• MDRNRT -  Modern ceramic roof tile
• MINVES – Fragment of a small, or mini, ceramic vessel
• MLDBWO – Bowl mold
• MLDFWO – Figurine, whistle, or ocarina mold
• MODPOT – Historic era pottery
• MRTPST – Ground stone mortar or pestle
• MTE (or GSMTE) - Metate (surface of a grinding stone).
• MTER (or METR):  Metate rough-out; a metate that was never completed. Some examples are included under MTE.
• OSTN – Ground stone
• PEND - Pendent
• PIGST - Pigment stone.  These are soft rocks, usually yellow or red, that we infer might have been used in making paint.
• PLCN (or LC)- Pierced ladle censer (ceramic bowl with holes cut completely through its base).
• POLST (or GSPOLST)- Smoother/Polisher (a stone, purposely shaped or not, with clear signs of smoothing due to human use on one or more of its facets).
• PRPT- Stone projectile point
• PTSTD (or PTSTND or VSM) – Potstand.  These are ceramic supports, many of which were used to support vessels during the shaping and firing process.
• RSTA – Bone rasp (possible musical instrument) and stone abrader.  These different types of artifacts are distinguished on their respective catalog sheets.
• SCNL - Scored censer lid (shallow ceramic plate with lines incised on its convex side; often shows evidence of smudging from prolonged exposure to smoke on that side)
• SCULP – Stone sculpture
• SHDSK - Sherd disk
• SHELL - Marine shell
• SPNWHL (or SPWL)- Spindle whorl.
• STBL - Ball stone
• STBWLS – Stone bowl
• STMP - Stamp (ceramic artifact with a deeply engraved design on one side; likely used to apply pigment in that design to skin or cloth)
• STNDSK- Stone Disk
• UHSD - Used sherd.  A ceramic fragment with signs of being worn down on one or more edges due to use.
• UNWRKDR – Stone of uncertain function, possibly worked.
• USCNL – Unscored censer lid.
• VES – Whole ceramic vessel or large fragment of a container.
• WKDS (or WKSHD) - Worked sherd
• WKST (or GSUV) - Worked stone.